Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - John 9:34 - 9:34

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - John 9:34 - 9:34


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

34. ἐν ἁμαρτ. σύ. Emphatic: ‘In sins wast thou born altogether; thou art a born reprobate; and thou, dost thou teach us?’

ὅλος. ‘Every part of thy nature (comp. Joh 13:10) has been steeped in sins from thy birth.’ They hold the same belief as the disciples, that sin before birth is possible, and maliciously exclude not only the alternative stated by Christ (Joh 9:3) but even the one stated by the disciples (Joh 9:2), that his parents might have sinned. Their passion blinds them to their inconsistency. They had contended that no miracle had been wrought; now they throw his calamity in his face as proof of his sin.

Godet points out the analogy between these Jews and modern impugners of miracles. The Jews argued: God cannot help a Sabbath-breaker; therefore the miracle attributed to Jesus is a fiction. The opponents of the miraculous argue: The supernatural cannot exist; therefore the miracles attributed to Jesus and others are fictions. In both cases the logic of reason has to yield to the logic of facts.

ἐξέβαλον. They put him forth: see on Joh 10:4. This probably does not mean excommunication. (1) The expression is too vague. (2) There could not well have been time to get a sentence of excommunication passed. (3) The man had not incurred the threatened penalty; he had not ‘confessed that He was Christ’ (Joh 9:22). Provoked by his sturdy adherence to his own view they ignominiously dismiss him—turn him out of doors, if (as the ‘out’ seems to imply) they were meeting within walls. What follows illustrates Luk 6:22.